BIO - DENIS KITCHEN

Denis Kitchen
(1946-) was an original member of the "Underground Comix"
movement in the late '60s and 1970s, perhaps equally well
known as the founder and publisher of the pioneering
publishing house Kitchen
Sink Press (1969-99). He also founded the
Comic Book Legal
Defense Fund(1986-), is the author or
co-author of several books, a literary and art agent, a
longtime editor, and a curator of comic art exhibitions in
America and overseas. A monograph of Kitchen's artistic
career, The
Oddly Compelling Art of Denis Kitchen,
was published by Dark Horse in 2010. With partner John
Lind he created the Kitchen
Sink Books imprint in partnership with
Dark Horse Comics in 2013. He was elected to the Will
Eisner Hall of Fame in San Diego in 2015.

Early career: Kitchen wrote,
illustrated, self-published and hawked an irreverent mimeo
zine called Kleptomaniac while still in grade
school, continuing it for twenty-five issues as Klepto
into high school. (William Horlick H.S., Racine WI).
Despite its irreverence Horlick gave him a Distinguished
Graduate Award in 2017. The creative and entrepreneurial
experience proved addictive. At the University of
Wisconsin—Milwaukee (UWM) in 1967, he co-founded Snide,
the campus's first humor magazine, and also drew a weekly
strip, "Sheepshead U," for the UWM Post while
majoring in Journalism. After graduation and a brief army
stint, his professional cartooning career began in 1968
when he created and self-published Mom's
Homemade Comics #1
during the tumult of a burgeoning counterculture. The
publication of Mom's #1 coincided with the birth
of the underground comix movement and Kitchen quickly
networked with like-minded colleagues in the Midwest and
west coast.

PUBLISHING
CAREER

The success of his self-published Mom's
Homemade Comics #1 in 1969 led to Kitchen's
formation of Krupp
Comic Works, Inc. in Milwaukee, which
soon developed into a small "hippie empire" encompassing Kitchen
Sink Enterprises (later Kitchen Sink Press),
the long-running publishing imprint (1969-99); Strickly
Uppa Crust, a Milwaukee comics and head
shop; The
Cartoon Factory, an offbeat commercial
art studio; Ordinary
Records(which produced a 10-inch disc
by R. Crumb & His Keep-on-Truckin'
Orchestra, the 1st 78 rpm record issued in over twenty
years); Krupp Cards (irreverent Xmas and
all-season greeting cards); Krupp
Mail Order (spun off to partner Tyler
Lantzy in 1975); and Krupp Distribution, which
distributed comics and related items internationally (sold
in 1980 to Capital City Distribution). He separately
co-founded theBugle-American
(later simply the Bugle) a Wisconsin-based
alternative weekly newspaper that lasted seven years
(1970-77). In 1976 he also co-founded the Fox
River Patriot, a weekly
alternative rural newspaper (parting from it in 1980). For
both newspapers he regularly contributed color covers,
comic strips, illustrations and custom ads. But Kitchen's
primary focus over nearly five decades has been publishing
comic books, graphic novels and related items, first as
Krupp / Kitchen
Sink Press then to a much smaller degree,
as Denis
Kitchen Publishing, and currently Kitchen
Sink Books.

His surreal cover for the late Jim Spencer's "Major
Arcana" album has been called a psychedelic classic. He
provided illustrations for several issues of the
Milwaukee Journal's Insight magazine and strips
for national magazines such as Head, High Times
and Playboy.

In recent years a 2-page story "That Vexing Thing
Upstairs" appeared in Blabworld #2 (Last Gasp,
2014); he's in the gigantic Little Nemo: Dream
Another Dream (Locust Moon, 2015); and his 5-page
graphic biography of Dr. Seuss, featured in Masterful
Marks (Simon & Schuster, 2015), was
highlighted in The Huffington Post:

One-Man shows: Kitchen's
one-man shows have been held at the University of
Wisconsin—Oshkosh (twice); Ripon College; The
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (2010-11); the
University of Wisconsin—Parkside gallery (2014);
the Scott Eder Gallery in Brooklyn (2015-16); and
the Amerikahaus Gallery in conjunction with the
Munich Comics Festival (2017); An upcoming one-man
exhibit is planned for Amador, Portugal in
2018.

Both Kitchen Sink Press and Kitchen
Sink Books over the years have received a
disproportionate number of the comics industry's Eisner
and Harvey Awards and nominations,
occasionally even dominating the awards, despite a market
share generally under 1%. In 1989 Kitchen Sink Press led
all publishers with 13 Eisner nominations, edging DC
Comics, which had eleven. In 1993 Kitchen Sink won six
Harveys, more than any other company. In 1994 Kitchen Sink
won five Harveys and two Eisners. The company won another
five Eisners and Harveys combined in 1995. In addition to
nominations and awards for published titles, Denis Kitchen
personally received:

VOLUNTEER
WORK

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
(CBLDF). Kitchen founded the 501 (c) 3
non-profit organization in 1986, dedicated to defending
the comics industry's First Amendment rights, after one of
his company's titles, Omaha the Cat Dancer, was
busted in Lansing IL and the store's manager faced serious
charges. Kitchen served as the CBLDF's President and board
Chairman for the organization's first eighteen years
(1986-2004). http://www.cbldf.org

Harvey
Awards Committee. Following the
dissolution of Kitchen Sink Press in 1999, when there was
no conflict of interest, Kitchen chaired this committee
till 2003.

2017. "Will
Eisner: The Centennial Celebration." Society
of Illustrators, New York, and traveling to Amador,
Portugal. Co-curated with John Lind and different from the
simultaneously running exhibit in France. The accompanying
catalogue, Will Eisner: The Centennial Celebration (in
English and French), was published by Kitchen Sink
Books/Dark Horse, 2017.

2005-06. "Will Eisner: A Retrospective"
(2005-06). Originating at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon
Art, New York City and travelling to Utah Valley State
College, Orem, UT; and the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst MA.

2004. "Harvey Kurtzman" exhibition.
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, New York City.